Miley's Plight
by RedYellow11
Summary: Most of all, I hated that she wasn’t with me. Then again, she’s cheated on Oliver several times with me...Liley. A little dark. Please R&R.
1. The Routine

A/N: I don't know if I'm going to continue this so please R&R and tell me what you think. It's in Mileys point of view.

I don't own Hannah Montana, the characters, etc.

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I hated them. Scratch that, I loved them both dearly, but I hated seeing them hanging all over each other. I hated how they held hands all the time. I hated that they always insisted on going everywhere together. I hated how they always found any excuse to slobber all over each other. Most of all, I hated that she wasn't with me.

Then again, she's cheated on Oliver several times with me.

It started about three months ago. I was sitting on my couch, watching TV, when I heard a knock on the door. I answered it. There was Lilly, crying her eyes out. She threw herself into my arms.

"He forgot! I can't believe it! How could he forget?"

"Lilly," I said, secretly thrilled that Lilly was in my arms, "calm down. What exactly happened? Who forgot what?"

"Oliver forgot our anniversary. How could he forget?" Lilly cried harder.

I gasped in realization. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Where is he?"

"He's hanging out with some of his stupid guy friends…on our anniversary." Lilly started crying even harder. I walked her over to the couch. I sat down and she laid with her head on my lap. As much as I hated to see Lilly in such pain, I loved that we got to spend time together. She'd been spending so much time with Oliver that I'd barely gotten to see her.

"Lilly, it's okay. I mean, Oliver's been really busy with his new job and everything. Not that that's an excuse, but it's understandable." This didn't seem to make Lilly feel any better. I never know what to say in these situations. I wanted to say bad things about Oliver so she would leave him and be with me, but Oliver was my friend, and even if they did break up, Lilly wouldn't come running to me…at least not the way I wanted her to. "Look, you can stay here tonight. We'll have a movie night or something."

Lilly sat up and hugged me. "I don't know what I'd do without you Miley. I love you."

"I love you too Lilly." She had no idea how much.

So we stayed up late watching Disney movies to make Lilly feel better. We laid on the bed and cuddled. About halfway through Beauty and the Beast, Lilly spoke up.

"I don't want to be with Oliver. I never wanted to be with Oliver."

I looked at Lilly with shock and confusion. "What?"

"Don't get me wrong, I love him to death, but I never really wanted to be his girlfriend. I said yes because I knew he wanted me to…because I knew he loved me. I've always thought of him as more of a brother. It's so awkward to hold his hand and kiss him. I hate it." I was silent. What the hell was I going to say? Lucky for me, Lilly kept talking. "He's not a very good boyfriend either. I mean, it's our anniversary and I'm not in his arms; I'm in yours."

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. "Well, what're you going to do?" was all I could manage to get out.

"I don't know." Lilly sat up a little so she could look at me. Her big, blue eyes were staring straight into mine. I always got lost in her eyes. "Miley?"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Have you ever thought of kissing me before?"

"What?" Had she really said that? Was this really happening or was this all a dream? It had to be real. Dreams were never this real.

"I've thought of kissing you before," she said in a breathy voice. I saw her leaning towards me and I couldn't move. I was shaking a little. She'd never been like this before. She'd always seemed so happy with Oliver and I'd always just been her best friend. Now, everything was changing. I knew things were never going to be the same. Part of me was terrified. Part of me didn't care much. I started to get a little of my senses back. I couldn't do this. I couldn't do this to Oliver and, more importantly, I couldn't let Lilly make a stupid mistake just because she was hurt.

"Lilly," I said, barely above a whisper, "we can't-" but it was too late. Her lips pressed against mine and I couldn't help but kiss back. It was better than anything I could've ever imagined. I put my hand up to cup her cheek and she mirrored my action. Before long, the kiss became passionate. It didn't take long for our tongues to get involved.

Before I really had time to comprehend what was going on, she pulled back, panic in her eyes.

"Oh my God," she said. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just got caught up in the moment."

"Lilly, it's okay. I don't-"

"I need to leave. I'm sorry."

"Lilly wait!" I called after her. She didn't grab any of her stuff. She didn't even put her shoes back on. She just left without another word.

The next day at school, Lilly acted like nothing had happened. She and Oliver were kissing and holding hands like everything was fine. I guess Oliver had apologized for not being with her the night before. Lilly told Oliver that she loved him for the first time that day. I don't think my heart could've been any more broken. I tried to act like nothing had happened too. I'd almost convinced myself that nothing had happened that night, that I'd just dreamed it all up. That is, until it happened again about a month later.

This time was about the same as the last, there was just less talking. Oliver had cancelled on her to hang out with Jake Ryan, she came to my house, we hung out for a while, and then she kissed me again. It was just as good as the first time, if not better. It ended the same way too. She left my house, nearly in tears, and pretended it'd never happened.

It happened a few more times after that. Oliver would do something stupid, she'd come over, and we'd kiss…and every time she'd leave and go back to the real world, where she belonged to Oliver. Every time she came to my door crying, I knew what the end result would be, but I still let her in. No matter how bad this was hurting me, and no matter how much I wanted her to stop, I knew she needed me, and I loved her too much to turn her away.

Was she using me to make herself feel loved, or did she really have feelings for me? I guess it didn't matter. In the end she'd always be his, and I'd always be there for her whenever she needed me…however she needed me.


	2. Fed Up

I decided I was done. I wasn't going to let Lilly do this to me anymore. I loved her, but I couldn't let this go on forever. She was using me. It may not have started that way, but that's what it had become. Every time we had our little encounters, they go a little further. We almost slept together last time. Still, it always ends the same. She runs out, and I'm left sitting there with nothing.

Oliver still didn't know. He didn't even suspect anything. Oliver was a sweet guy, but he'd never been very observant. Lilly never really let on that anything was wrong. She'd always tell him how much she loved him and she'd buy him things. Everyone thought it was because she cared about him so much. I knew what it really was. She felt guilty. She'd been coming to me more and more, even when the two of them weren't fighting. The next day, she would always be extra nice to him. The more we fooled around and the farther we went, the more she bought for him. She'd spent near two hundred dollars on him the last time. She wanted to bury her guilt by showering him with gifts.

In any case, Oliver was clueless and happy, I was miserable, and Lilly…I never knew what Lilly wanted anymore. At least, I didn't know what she wanted from Oliver and me.

So one night, I was sitting on my couch watching some lame TV show when I heard a knock on the door. I answered, and there she was. Lilly Truscott. My best friend, the love of my life, and the girl I somehow had to find a way to finally tell no.

"Hey," she said to me. "Can I come in?"

"Why aren't you at Oliver's right now?"

"He's hanging out with Jake Ryan tonight. I figured we could hang out."

I let her in. After hearing that she and Oliver weren't fighting at the moment, I had a little hope that she wasn't going to try anything. Sometimes we did just hang out, but those days were becoming more few and far between, especially when my dad wasn't home…which he wasn't.

"So what did you have in mind?" I asked.

"I don't know. We could just watch movies or something."

"I'd rather not. That always leads to other things, y'know?"

"Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing."

Those words hit me like a punch in the stomach. Did she realize this was hurting me and…enjoy it? Was this all some big game to her? No, that couldn't be it. I knew Lilly. At least, I thought I did before this all started. Still, even if she was a completely different person than I thought she was, I knew she wasn't that malicious. There was no way that she knew how bad this made me feel. If she did, she would've stopped. Right?

"Lilly, we can't keep doing this. You can't keep coming over here."

"I don't love Oliver, Miley. You know that," she said while taking a step closer to me. I took a step back.

"Yeah, but do you care about him at all? You must since you leave me every time and the next day you always make him feel like he's the love of your life."

Lilly looked at the floor. "I just…I…I wasn't expecting all of this from you."

"What were you expecting Lilly? Were you expecting me to just let you keep using me? I can't Lilly. I can't keep sneaking around with you and see you the next day with Oliver telling him how much you love him and how you want to marry him and all that. It's not fair to me and it's certainly not fair to Oliver. I refuse to keep being the one you're all over when Oliver isn't making you happy. If you're unhappy, leave him. Don't just come here and play with my emotions!"

"I never meant for it to be like this. I never meant for us to be like this."

"Then what did you want, Lilly?"

"I don't know! I mean, the first time, it had just been a fluke. I was feeling bad and you were being so nice to me. I kissed you not really thinking. Sure, I'd thought about it before, but I'd never really thought about actually going through with it. I sure as hell hadn't been expecting you to kiss me back. I realized pretty fast that what we were doing was wrong, and I ran. I ran away from it all because I didn't wanna deal. I figured if I acted like nothing happened, it would go away.

"Well, a month went by and it hadn't gone away. I couldn't stop thinking about you. I started noticing little things about you like how your hips swayed when you walked and how you'd bite your bottom lip when you were thinking about something. Most of all, I noticed how much you looked at me. I hadn't realized before then that you had feelings for me, but after that night, it became painfully obvious.

"The more I thought about it, the more I hated Oliver. You were always looking at me and paying attention to me, but Oliver? Oliver preferred to pay attention to his friends. I basically had to throw myself at him to get any attention. You, on the other hand, were always there for me. You always knew when I was sad or confused or when I just needed someone to hold me and tell me everything was alright.

"So I came to your house, and I knew exactly what I was doing. I wanted you and I knew you wanted me. The problem was, my conscious always got the best of me. I knew that no matter how much of an idiot Oliver was, he still loved me and I was still his girlfriend. I felt bad for him, so I left. Problem was, I couldn't stay away. I kept coming back, then having these attacks of conscious and leave. But tonight, I wasn't going to let that hold me back-"

"What were you gonna do, Lilly?" I interrupted. Were you just going to go through with it and swallow your guilt until tomorrow when you saw Oliver? Were you going to actually change the way things are and break up with him, or were you just gonna sleep with me and go back to Oliver like nothing ever happened?"

Lilly stared for a moment. I could tell that she had no idea what to say. "I don't know. I was going to figure that all out tomorrow."

"But that's the problem, Lilly! You never think about what you're doing to everyone around you! Do you realize that every time you leave here, you leave me with nothing? You get to go back to your normal little world with your boyfriend, and I'm left with nothing!" I was pretty sure I was turning red, and I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks, but I didn't care. She needed to know what she was doing. "God, Lilly! How could you be so thoughtless? So selfish? I'm in love with you and so is Oliver! How can you do this to us? How can you be so cruel?"

Lilly was dumbfounded. She started to cry. "I...I didn't know you were in love with me."

"How could you not know?! After all the times you've come to my door, and every time I knew what was coming. I knew what we would end up doing and I _always _knew you would leave. So why did I do it? Because I was afraid of losing you. Because I knew that this would be the only way I'd be able to hold you and kiss you the way I always wanted to. But y'know what? I'm done. I'm done with being used and I'm done with you. Get out of my house."

"Miley, please-"

"No! Get out!"

"But Miley...I love you, too."

In that moment, my world stopped. She loved me? I wanted to hug her and kiss her and start our futures together. But I knew that even if it were true, if she did love me, that she wouldn't ever be mine.

"If you love me, call Oliver and break up with him. Tell him you found someone else and that you don't love him."

She looked down at the floor. "It's not that simple, Miley."

"My heart sank." Yeah, that's what I thought. Get out."

Lilly looked at me, then turned and ran out of the house. I dropped to my knees and cried. I cried for Oliver who Lilly and I had hurt so badly without him even knowing. I cried for Lilly who seemed confused and lost. I cried for myself because I'd never get the girl. Most of all, I cried for Lilly and me because I knew from that moment on, we'd never be able to truly be friends again.


	3. My Fault

It had been a month since I'd told Lilly to leave my house, and things had changed a lot. Lilly had stopped coming over to my house all together. She still hadn't told Oliver about what we'd done, but their relationship still took a downward spiral. Lilly had dropped most of her fake happiness and they fought almost every day. Oliver and I had almost completely stopped talking. I could never really bring myself to look him straight in the eye knowing that I was a big part of why his relationship with Lilly was getting so bad.

Although Lilly wasn't coming to my house anymore, we still talked. Mostly, it consisted of me telling her to tell Oliver and her telling me it wasn't the right time. We'd had an occasional slip where she'd kiss me and I'd always kiss back, but we'd always stop almost as soon as it began. We both knew it was wrong, and the more time that passed, the more we both felt guilty for doing this to Oliver. I don't know about her, but I know that every time she kissed me, I felt elated and sick at the same time. I never wanted to stop kissing her, but neither of us wanted to hurt Oliver…which we probably should've thought about the first time.

So one day, I was sitting at my house and I heard a knock on the door. I knew it had to be Lilly. She was the only one that ever came over. I answered my door and was surprised to see Oliver standing there.

"Oh," I said. "Hey Oliver. What're you doing here?"

"Hey Miley. Can I come in? I need to talk to you."

I stepped aside and let him in. I knew this wasn't going to be a conversation I wanted to have. The only reason Oliver would be coming to my house would be to talk to Lilly. We sat on the couch.

"So, what's up Oliver?"

"Um…I just wanted to ask…what happened to us? I mean, we were such good friends and right when me and Lilly started fighting, you just weren't around anymore. I miss you."

I was shocked. That hadn't been what I was expecting.

"Well, I guess we just kind of drifted, you know?"

"I know. It's just you and Lilly are still sort of close. I see you guys talking at school once in a while. I don't know what…what I'm doing wrong." I saw a tear fall out of his eye.

"What do you mean? You're not doing anything wrong."

"I must be. Lilly's always mad at me and you don't even talk to me anymore. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? Lilly must have mentioned something to you."

I've never hated myself more than I did at that moment. Oliver thought he was doing something wrong. He thought this was all his fault. He thought that Lilly was mad and I was ignoring him because he had screwed up.

"Oliver, this has nothing to do with you, it's just that…" I didn't know what to say. I didn't wanna tell him the truth. It just wasn't the right time. "She's probably just nervous about mid-terms coming up. Don't worry about it."

"Okay," he said, wiping the tears out of his eyes. "What about you? Why haven't you been around?"

"Same reason. Mid-terms."

"Oh…alright. Yeah, that makes sense." Oliver smiled, obviously buying the whole story. "Well, at least tell me that you'll be at my birthday party on Saturday."

I'd completely forgotten about Oliver's birthday. "Yeah, I wouldn't miss it for the world." There was nothing I wanted to do less than be at Oliver's birthday party knowing that Lilly would be there with him.

"Good. I'm glad I came and talked to you. I don't have anything to worry about. You just took this huge load off my chest." He walked over to me and hugged me. "Thank you, Miley." He pulled away. "Well, I need to get going. I've got an essay to write." He smiled and walked out of my house. I stood there for a second, not knowing what to do. I felt more terrible about all this than I ever had. Oliver thought he could trust me, when really I was the reason his girlfriend was so distant and cold.

I left and walked to Lilly's house. I knocked on the door and she answered.

"Miley, this is a surprise," she said.

"Look, you need to tell Oliver everything. I can't keep lying to him."

"Miley, I've told you a thousand times, I can't tell him yet. It's just not the right time."

"Then when is it going to be the right time?"

"It's definitely not the right time a few days before his birthday. Plus, at this point what am I supposed to say? 'Oh, sorry Oliver, but I don't love you and I've been cheating on you with Miley.' Yeah, that would go over well."

"I don't care! This isn't right and you know it! You have to tell him, or at least break it off with him. It's not fair to him."

"You don't care about what's fair to him."

"How can you say that? I want Oliver to know!"

"Do you really?" she asked. "Do you really want Oliver to know, or are you just saying that so you can take the moral high road? If you really wanted him to know, you'd tell him."

"It's not for me to tell him." I knew that was a weak excuse.

"The hell it isn't! You may not be his girlfriend, but you care about Oliver just as much as I do and you're breaking his heart just as much as I am. If you really wanted him to know, tell him yourself."

I wanted to have a comeback, but nothing came to me. "Are you going to Oliver's party?"

"Yeah, but I really don't want to. Honestly, I'd rather stay in with you."

"Lilly, stop. We can't do this anymore. Seriously." She sighed, and I internally did the same. "Did you mean it?"

Lilly looked at me confused. "Did I mean what?"

"Did you mean it when you said you loved me?"

"Well," she started, "yes…no…I don't know. I know I care about you. I know that you make me feel special. I know that every night I dream about you and that I loose all thought when I'm around you. I dream about you at night, I think about you all day, and when I kiss Oliver, I'm thinking about you. This is the closest to love I've ever gotten."

I was once again left speechless. This whole conversation with Lilly was making everything more difficult. Everything was easy when Oliver was innocent, Lilly was malicious, and I was used. It wasn't so easy when Lilly was just a confused girl who had made a lot of mistakes and I was secretly hoping Lilly never told Oliver about us so I could claim to be morally just while Lilly and I messed around behind Oliver's back. Lilly wasn't the villain here. I was.

"I have to go," I said. I walked out of the house. I was too overwhelmed to deal with all of this. All this time, I'd fooled myself into thinking I was basically innocent in all of this when I was probably the most responsible. I decided that if I really wanted to be a good person. I had to tell Oliver. It was the right thing to do. I was going to tell him after his birthday. I spent the next two days planning how I was going to tell him what had happened. Then his party happened…and all my plans went out the window.


	4. The Party

A/N: I'm so, SO sorry this took so long, but I had no idea where I was going with this chapter and I got hit with serious writer's block. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, post a review. If you don't, post a review anyways.

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After debating for several days whether or not I should go to Oliver's party, I decided to go. Oliver really wanted me to be there, and I was pretty sure Lilly wouldn't try anything in Oliver's house on his birthday. She may have been a little confused and possibly screwed up, but she wasn't a bad person. She still cared about Oliver…and hopefully me.

I stood outside the door for a good ten minutes, preparing to see Oliver and Lilly either at each other's throats or in each other's arms. Either way, I wasn't going to be having any fun at this party. It was basically going to be my own personal hell.

I finally did ring the doorbell. Oliver answered with a big, goofy smile on his face.

"Hey Miley!" he said, hugging me. "I'm so glad you came! Come in!"

"Happy Birthday, Oliver," I said as I walked in the door. "How's it feel to be eighteen?"

"Pretty much the same as it did to be seventeen," he said with a laugh. It occurred to me at that moment that I hadn't seen Oliver this happy since he and Lilly had started fighting. More than ever, I missed the days when I didn't know that Lilly didn't love him…even though I was miserable then, too. At least then we could all lie to each other and ourselves with more ease and less guilt.

Oliver was looking at me funny. I hadn't said anything for slightly longer than was comfortable. "Oh, I'm really sorry I don't have a present for you. I promise I'll get you one next week."

"Don't worry about it Miley. I'm just glad you came. For a second, I was scared you were going to skip out on me." He laughed and I forced out a laugh. "Oh," Oliver said, "I almost forgot. Lilly wanted to talk to you about something. Did you talk to her the other day when I came over?"

"Yeah," I said. I saw no reason to lie about it.

"I figured. She's been acting a lot nicer around me. What did you say to her?"

"Well," I said, trying to formulate a believable lie in my head, "we mostly just talked about you and how's she's been just kind of using you as a punching bag. She really hadn't realized she'd been doing it."

"All I have to say is thank you so much. Now that I know that she's gonna be normal again, I know we'll be able to patch things up." Oliver looked at me like I was his savior or something. It was making me very uneasy.

"So, what did Lilly want to talk to me about? Was it important?" I asked.

"She said you knew what it was about and that you guys needed to talk about it alone. She was acting a little weird, but I'm sure it's nothing too bad."

Oliver really was oblivious sometimes, but I couldn't blame him. Why would he suspect Lilly of cheating, especially with me?

"Alright," I said, "I'll talk to her later."

"She's around here somewhere. You wouldn't have to look very hard to find her."

"I think you should go mingle with your guests," I said, trying to change the subject. "You are the birthday boy after all."

"Yeah, I guess I should. You go do the same. I'll talk to you more later, okay?"

"Sure. See you around, Oliver." Oliver walked away and started to talk to other people. I stood there awkwardly and hoped no one would come up to me and try to make small talk. Honestly, I almost left, but Oliver was happy, and I'd already done enough to impede his happiness. I tried to blend into the crowd.

"Hey Miley. I'm glad you came," a voice said from behind me. I jumped, but I knew who it was. I didn't turn around. I just walked away. I didn't want to deal with her right then. I spent a good deal of time dodging Lilly, but it didn't last forever. She finally grabbed me and dragged me into a separate room.

"Why are you avoiding me?" she asked. I raised my eyebrow. "Okay, admittedly, that was a stupid question, but why specifically. Did Oliver tell you I want to talk?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to. I have nothing else to say."

"Fine, but I have stuff to say," she said. "For starters, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for yesterday and how rude I was, I'm sorry for not telling Oliver, and most of all, I'm sorry I started all of this in the first place. This is all my fault. I never meant to hurt anyone, I just didn't think." She laughed a little. "Wow, I really sound like and idiot, don't I?"

I smiled. "Yeah, you do." She looked at me the way she always does when I say something a little mean. "Why the sudden change of heart? Yesterday you didn't sound so remorseful."

"I don't know. I just…I thought about everything that's happened and how bad things have gotten and I just realized that everything that was bad in my life was my fault. I'd used you and Oliver. You two are the only people in this world I care about more than anything and I used you both. I used the way you both loved me and I used the fact that neither of you could ever really have me. Not completely anyway." Lilly started to cry.

"This isn't all your fault. I was mean yesterday, too. In fact, I haven't been nice to you in months."

"You've had every right to treat me badly."

"I really haven't. All that stuff you said yesterday was true."

"No," she said. "I just said that stuff to get under your skin. I don't even know why."

"No matter why you said it, it was true. I didn't really want you to tell Oliver. I mean, I did, but at the same time I liked being with you and being able to hold and kiss you without breaking Oliver's heart. I was being really selfish."

Lilly and I sat there in silence for a little while. Finally, I heard Lilly speak up.

"So," she said, "did you mean it?"

"Did I mean what?" I asked.

"Did you mean it when you said you loved me?"

I sighed and nodded. "I've loved you for a long time. I just didn't know how to tell you." More silence passed. This time, I said something first. "So, where does this leave us?"

"I…I've been thinking about that for the last few days. Miley, you know I car about you. If I could have things my way, I'd be with you."

"But?" I asked.

"But…I can't be with you. It would basically make my senior year hell, not to mention my parents' and Oliver's reactions. As much as this kills me, I can't change my entire life to be with you. You may be ready for that, but I'm not."

I felt empty. "So…does this mean we go back to being friends?"

"I hope so," she replied.

"Are you going to tell Oliver?"

Lilly looked at the floor. "Honestly, I wasn't going to. I was just going to break up with him and keep it as vague as possible. I figured it would hurt less. If you wanna tell him, I respect that. I just…I can't. I hope you understand."

I really did understand. She wanted this to end as peacefully as possible after all the mess that had been made. "I won't tell him. I'll keep my mouth shut."

Lilly took a couple steps toward me and kissed me. This wasn't like the other ones. All our other kisses had been passionate and hungry for more. This one was slower and warmer. I really felt like she cared about me…and that this was the last kiss that we were ever going to have.

She pulled away. "We should get back out there before Oliver starts looking for us."

We both walked out of the room wiping tears out of our eyes.

* * *

About an hour later, Oliver was opening presents. Lilly was sitting next to him with a fake smile plastered on her face. I tried not to look at her because the more I did, the more I felt like crying. Oliver finally opened his last present and everyone yelled at him to make a speech. Being the good host that he was, he stood up and started talking.

"Hey guys." The crowd replied. "So, as many of you know, it's my birthday today. If you don't know that, then you're probably in the wrong house." Everyone laughed. "No, seriously, I'm glad you all came. It's a big day for me, and there's no one I'd rather spend this day with than my family, my friends, and Lilly."

Oliver turned to Lilly. I could tell that he was making her a little nervous; I just wasn't sure why. He started talking straight to Lilly. "Lilly, I know we've been having a rough time lately, but I know we'll be okay."

"Oliver, stop," she said.

"No, I wanna say this. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. You've been so good to me, even when I screwed up. You always stayed by my side.

"Oliver, please don't do this," she pleaded.

"What's wrong? I'm singing your praises and your acting like I just slapped you in the face.

Lilly got very red. "I just-"

"You just what?" Oliver asked.

"I've been cheating on you!"

The room got so quiet you could've heard an ant crawl on carpet.

"What?" Oliver asked in disbelief.

"I…I'm so sorry. I just-"

"Who was it?" he asked.

Lilly looked at him, then at me. "It's not important."

"You don't get to decide what's important, Lilly. How could you do this?" Lilly went to explain, but Oliver walked out of the room and the house. Lilly didn't even chase after him. She knew as well as I did that it would be pointless. Everyone was staring silently at Lilly. Some looked shocked, while others looked angry. Lilly got up and walked out before anyone could bombard her.

After everything that had happened, Oliver's parents basically cleared out the house. Within minutes, everyone had called, texted, or instant messaged about what had happened at the party. I got a few dozen calls asking if I knew anything about it because I was so close to both of them. Eventually, I just turned my phone off.

I went to bed wondering what had happened. One second I was planning on telling Oliver everything; the next thing I knew, Lilly had convinced me not to tell him, but she told him herself. I couldn't believe she'd done that. More over, I didn't know why she hadn't told him she'd been with me. I guess she'd been trying to soften the blow.

It would be another month before Oliver found out I was the one Lilly had cheated on him with.


	5. Telling Oliver

The day after the party, Oliver came over to my house crying. He made this whole speech about how Lilly had betrayed him and that he couldn't trust anyone…but me. I didn't have the nerve to tell him I was the one person in the world he should trust the least. Yeah, Lilly had betrayed him, but at least she'd had the decency to tell him.

When Oliver left, Lilly came over. She was almost worse than Oliver. She felt like she didn't have a friend in the world besides me. I guess she'd gotten a lot of bad phone calls, and she'd tried to call me, but I'd turned my phone off. I let her spend the night. For the first time in several months, we just slept. No flirting, no kissing, just sleep, like we used to do when we were friends.

School was the worst part, though. Lilly was really getting harassed. There were tons of people coming up to her calling her a cheater and a slut. One kid even went as far as to shove her to the ground. There were a lot of people at our school that really loved Oliver. We just didn't quite realize just how many until now. She kept trying to talk to me, but Oliver was basically attached to my hip the entire day.

Everyone asked me if I knew who "the other guy" was. I always said I didn't know. Everyone had their theories, though. Some people thought it was some college guy. Other people thought that she just made it up to get attention, which didn't make any sense because she got plenty of attention being Oliver's girlfriend. The leading theory was that it was Jake Ryan. Jake hadn't been at school for a while. Actually, he was on vacation, but people just jumped to the conclusion that it had something to do with Lilly. Oliver thought that was the one that made the most sense.

Two weeks after our first day back at school since the party, I went over to Lilly's house. I'd basically been ignoring her to comfort Oliver (and to hide my guilt from him), and we had a lot to talk about. I knocked on the door, she answered, and there was silence. I couldn't say anything. Seeing her standing in the doorway, eyes puffy from crying, nails bitten off…it broke my heart.

"Look," I started, "I totally understand if you never wanna talk to me again. I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I've been such a bitch and a miserable friend and I shouldn't have turned my back on you when you needed me most." I had to get that out.

"No Miley," she said. "It's okay. I brought this on myself."

"Lilly, you don't deserve any of this. Yeah, you fucked up, but so did I. So have millions of other people in the world. No one deserves to be treated like you're being treated right now. If you do, I do."

"You didn't really do anything wrong."

"The hell I didn't!" I said a little louder than I meant to. I saw Lilly jump. "I'm sorry, it's just that I knew you were with Oliver, and I still didn't stop. I could've said no. If anything I'm more to blame than you. You were vulnerable and I took advantage of you." I looked her straight in the eye. "Why didn't you tell him I was the one?"

"I'm trying to fix things, Miley," she said. "Bringing you down with me isn't exactly the way to make things right. Plus, Oliver really needs a friend right now."

"He has Jake."

"Yeah, but Jake has the emotional span of a toothpick. He really needs you right now."

"He's basically got the whole school backing him up right now. Who do you have?" I asked looking back at her.

Lilly looked at the ground. "I don't deserve anyone."

"Don't say that," I said, putting my hand on her chin and turning her face to look at me. "You should have someone to turn to. You shouldn't be left alone."

I hadn't realized that we'd been moving closer to each other until I felt her breath on my lips.

"Miley, this is wrong. We can't do this."

"I know…I just can't pull away."

Just before our lips met, she pulled away and said, "You have to."

It took all the strength I had to pull away from her. "What the hell is going on between us, Lilly?"

"I…I'm not sure. You should come inside."

I walked in and sat on the couch. "Things are becoming more and more complicated," I said as she sat next to me. "I'm sorry about almost kissing you."

"I know," she said. "To be perfectly honest, a big part of me is sorry I stopped you." Lilly smiled, then frowned in frustration. "Damn it! Why is all of this so confusing? I want you, but I can't have you because I don't wanna hurt Oliver, and I can't have both."

"Maybe we should just try being friends again," I said.

"Come on, Miley. You know just as well as I do that we can't. Too much has changed. I mean, we can barely be in the same room without being all over each other."

I knew she was right. We both knew each other's feelings and Oliver knew Lilly didn't love him.

"Maybe…" Lilly started, "maybe we should try being together. It's obviously what we both want."

"What about Oliver? It would kill him if we started dating."

"Maybe he doesn't need to know," she said.

"Lilly, that's just as bad as cheating. At least it feels that way. I'm sick of sneaking behind Oliver's back."

Lilly nodded. "You're right. I just don't know what else to do."

"Okay, just to clear things up, we don't wanna lose each other all together, but we can't be friends and we can't be a couple. Where does that leave us?"

"I have no idea," she said. "Maybe if we sleep on it, we'll think of something."

I stood up. "Okay, let's try that." I knew we wouldn't think of anything, but I wanted to put this off as long as possible because I feared our final conclusion would be to stop talking all together. It was the right thing to do, but I didn't want to do the right thing if it meant losing Lilly.

I left Lilly with a hug and a peck on the lips that came dangerously close to going to the next level. We both pulled away before it could. For the next two weeks, I tried to balance my time between Lilly and Oliver. I'd comfort Oliver during school, then go to Lilly's afterwards. Oliver was definitely getting better. He was laughing and joking almost as much as he did before he found out about Lilly. It was becoming very clear that he was going to be alright.

Lilly, on the other hand, was a mess. We'd spent everyday trying to figure out how to save our relationship without hurting Oliver. It was becoming more and more obvious that we weren't going to be able to do both, and neither one of us wanted to hurt Oliver anymore than we already had.

We'd always been fighting over whether or not I should tell Oliver I was the one she'd cheated with. I wanted to tell him to clear my conscience and he had a right to know. Lilly said that more than anything, he needed a friend and that telling him would only hurt him. Part of me agreed with her, but I didn't feel right comforting him for what I did.

In the end, I couldn't lie to Oliver anymore. He trusted me more than anyone and I wanted him to know the truth. So, I invited him over to my house one day after school. I sat him down and he got a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong, Miley?" he asked. "You're acting weird and it's kind of freaking me out."

I took a deep breath. "Oliver, you know I love you, right?"

"Oh," he said. "Look, we're friends and you're really great and all, but I don't like you that way. I'm still trying to deal with everything that happened with Lilly."

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, Oliver was really observant and sharp, but most of the time, the boy was thick as a brick.

"Oliver, I'm not confessing my love for you right now. I'm trying to tell you something that isn't going to make you very happy. I'm pretty sure you're gonna hate me after this."

Oliver looked at me and smiled. "There's no way I could ever hate you. You're my best friend."

This was going to be even harder than I thought, but I had to tell him. Lilly had been brave enough to tell him she's cheated (although it wasn't at the best time ever), so I needed to be brave and tell him I was the one she's been with.

"I know…" I took a deep breath. "I know who Lilly was with. I've known this entire time."

Oliver's face went blank. "What? He asked. Why…why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't wanna hurt you. You were already feeling bad enough."

We were quiet for a while. I could see Oliver trying to take this in.

"Okay," Oliver said, "I understand that. That doesn't make me hare you. I-"

"There's more," I said, cutting him off. "This person…this person is extremely close to you. It's someone you really trust."

"So it was Jake. I knew he-"

"Oliver, it's not Jake," I said.

"Yeah it is! There's no one else I trust like I trust him!"

"There's me," I said. It was now or never.

"Yeah, there's you, but there aren't any other guys I trust."

"What is I said it wasn't a guy?" I could feel my heart beating out of my chest.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked. "Are you saying…I don't get it."

He wasn't making this easy.

"Oliver, it was me."

"Don't joke, Miley," he said.

"No, I'm serious. It was me. She was with me."

Oliver looked at me in disbelief.

"No, it's not you," he said. "It can't be you. Lilly's not gay. You're not gay."

"I don't know fort sure about Lilly. Hell, Lilly isn't even sure about Lilly, but I am definitely a lesbian."

Oliver shook his head and stood up/ "No way. It's not possible. I know you. Even if you were a lesbian, which you aren't and Lilly was a lesbian,. Which she isn't, you wouldn't do this to me. You'd never even think of doing this to me."

"I'm so sorry," I said.

"You're sorry?" Oliver was starting to accept it. I could see his face getting red. "Really? I'm pretty sure that if you were sorry you wouldn't have done this in the first place!"

"I didn't plan this. It just happened. I understand why you're mad and-"

"You don't understand anything! I trusted you and you were sleeping with my girlfriend!"

"We never slept together. I swear to God."

"Oh, how nice," he said. I'm so glad that you weren't sleeping with her. You were just making out and groping each other and laughing at me behind my back! How could you do this? I trusted you, and you stabbed me in the back!"

"Oliver, let me explain."

No, you don't get to tell your side. You don't get to try to justify what you did. You know what? You're dead to me."

"Oliver, Please. Don't do this."

"Fuck off, Miley!" With that, Oliver stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

I should've seen this coming, but I didn't. I'd been expecting him to be mad, but I'd thought we'd be able to talk it out. I guess that was pretty naïve of me. If someone had told me a year ago that Oliver would hare me, I would've called them a liar. I never thought he would really hate me. Now I was pretty sure there was no one he hated more.


	6. Tears

A/N: Honestly, I had no idea where I was going with this, but I sort of like where it went, but if you don't please tell me.

* * *

If I thought things were tough when I was sneaking around with Lilly, I was seriously put in my place when the school found out that I was "the other man." Oliver had made it a point to tell everyone that was willing to listen that Lilly and I had been sleeping together and that we were trying to ruin his life. It made me think how amazing it was that a story could be so close to the truth and way off base at the same time.

In any case, the entire school shunned us. Besides occasionally being called a dyke and a slut, people didn't really talk to me much anymore. They talked about me all the time, because I could always hear people whispering to each other when I walked into a room, but they never talked directly to me. People just seemed to not know what to say, so they didn't say anything.

Lilly had it worse. Oliver seemed to still be madder at her than he was at me. She tried so many times to talk things out with him, but he never listened. He'd always just end up yelling some really mean, nasty remark at her. The whole school was taking his side, too. They'd treat Lilly like she was the scum of the earth.

I felt like Oliver was taking it too far with her. I knew the guy was hurting. He'd been wronged in the worst way imaginable. He'd seen his life completely change in virtually the blink of an eye, and no one in their right mind could handle that in a completely calm and sensible way. Still, the way he treated Lilly was far beyond the way a grieving boy should treat his ex. He had turned into this total asshole and he was trying to turn the entire school against her.

The worst came when Lilly and I made the mistake of trying to talk to each other at school. She'd pulled me aside one day at lunch. It scared the hell out of me. I was scared that someone was pulling me to the back of the school to beat the shit out of me. I was really getting on edge. When I saw it was Lilly, I wasn't much more relieved. We hadn't talked in two weeks.

"Miley, what did you tell Oliver? Did you tell him we were sleeping together? Why would you do that?" Lilly was throwing me so many questions I was barely catching them all.

"I never told him we slept together. In fact, I specifically said that we didn't sleep together."

"Then why is he telling everyone else that we did? The Oliver I know wouldn't do that."

"If you hadn't noticed, Oliver's kind of gone off the deep end as of late. He's not really the Oliver you knew, Lilly. Or did you miss the part where he called you a miserable whore last week?"

Lilly flinched. "Don't remind me."

"Why would you immediately assume that I was the one that lied?"

"What?" Lilly didn't know what I was talking about.

"Why did you figure I told Oliver we slept together? I wouldn't do that."

Lilly shook her head. "Is that really important?"

"Do you really care about me, or was all this just another way for you to screw with my head?"

"Fuck you, Miley! I told you that I never meant for any of this! I told you I care about you! What else do you want from me?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I know this isn't why you wanted to talk to me. You're worried about Oliver."

"Yeah, he's really scaring me. I don't really know how far he's gonna push this. I'm afraid he's gonna do something stupid."

"Him or one of his friends. I'm really sorry you've had to go through this alone." It got quiet. The thoughts going through my mind had gone beyond worrying about Oliver. They'd moved on to Lilly and me.

"What are we?" she asked. It was like she'd been reading my mind.

"I…I don't know. With all the craziness and backlash of what we did, I haven't really thought about it."

"You know what?" a voice from behind us asked. We both knew who it was. "Why don't you guys just sneak around? It's what you do best."

Oliver was standing there with a few of his friends.

"Oliver, are you…okay?" Lilly asked.

Oliver laughed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Besides the fact that my girlfriend and my best friend turned out to be big dykes that were sleeping with each other, I'm totally fine."

"Oliver, for the thousandth time, we never slept with each other," I said. He ignored me.

"So, Lilly, how are your parents taking it? How do they feel about their daughter now that they know what she is?"

"They…" Lilly looked at me. I could tell she was on the verge of tears. "They aren't too happy. They're talking about sending me to a private school."

"Well it better not be an all-girls school," one of Oliver's friends said.

"Could you guys leave us the hell alone?! We fucked up, okay? We get it! We don't need you giving us shit everyday!"

"Miley, the minute you decided it was cool to kiss my girlfriend, you gave up the right to have any say in this."

"No, Oliver. You've taken this way beyond where it should've gone. You've gone from a normal guy being angry to this mean, vindictive asshole. Lilly doesn't deserve any of this, and frankly, neither do I."

The yelling match had brought a crowd. Everyone was watching.

"You think that because I haven't handled this well that you've somehow become the better person in all of this? I may be losing it, but I am not the one that was with the one person my best friend loved more than anything. You know, you keep saying that you never slept with each other, but you never did say what you did do. You know what you did?" Oliver was fuming.

"I kissed her. That's what." It's all I could think to say.

"No, you did more than that. You stole her from me. She was mine!"

"I was never yours!" Lilly said. "I never really wanted to be with you! You were like my brother! I just…wanted you to be happy, but I didn't realize how unhappy it would make me. I'd always wanted Miley. I was just too scared to admit it to myself."

The last little bit even shocked me. I hadn't exactly been expecting that to come out of her mouth. While it almost put a smile on my face, it gave Oliver a look like he'd just been slapped in the face.

"Take that back," he said.

"I can't," she said. "I wish I could. Things would be a lot easier if I could, but I really can't."

"Take it back, Lilly," he said again.

"I really didn't wanna hurt you, Oliver, but I love Miley, and we're gonna be together. I'm sorry."

"Take it back you fucking bitch!"

I don't know what made me do it. I guess it was just anger about what he'd just said combining with all the frustrations of the whole situation, but I punched him in the jaw. Hard. It sent him falling to the ground. I heard some people laughing, and I wanted to punch them, too. It hadn't been about me wanting to embarrass Oliver. I just thought he needed to be brought back to reality. Then, he did something I hadn't been expecting.

He hit me back.

Before I knew it, we were fighting, and the kids around us were chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" I could hear Lilly yelling for us to stop. I knew the principal would be tearing us apart. I knew that if this didn't break up soon, Oliver could do some serious damage to me, but I didn't care.

Eventually, we got torn apart and hauled to the principal's office. He yelled at us for what seemed like forever, then sent us over to the nurse's office. Oliver and I just took the time to try to cool off. When the nurse got done with us, she told us that we only had some bruises and we were lucky that we hadn't done more to each other, and she sent us out to the lobby. Oliver and I sat there in silence for 30 minutes before Oliver finally spoke up.

"Miley?" he said. I just turned to look his way. I couldn't exactly see well. He'd given me a couple black eyes. He was still looking at the ground when he said, "I'm sorry."

And then he did the one thing I never would've guessed. He started crying. It was like he was finally really dealing with all of what had happened. He cried. I moved over to the seat next to him, held him, and started crying, too.


	7. Oliver

Oliver and I didn't talk after the fight. After we were done crying, we sort of went our separate ways. Oliver told all of his friends to stop making my life a living hell. Things were looking up for Lilly, too. From what I heard, people were finally treating her like a human being again. I didn't know personally because we hadn't spoken since the fight, either.

Things were getting normal again. Well, as normal as it could get where Oliver, Lilly, and I weren't speaking to each other. It had only been a week, but it felt a lot longer. I guess that was because the three of us had never gone very long without talking to each other.

So, it was a week after the fight and I was sitting on my couch watching TV when I heard a knock at my door. I really didn't wanna answer because nothing good had come from me answering my door for months. Still, I answered, and Oliver was standing at my door with a bouquet of flowers.

"Hey, Miley," he said. I stood there silently. "Okay, that's fair." Another silence. "I'm not sure why I brought flowers. It kind of seems like an apologizing boyfriend thing to do, but I couldn't think of anything else to give you." He handed me the flowers, and I walked away to put them in water.

"You can come in," I said over my shoulder. Oliver walked in and sat on the couch. I joined him.

"So," he started, "how're you feeling?"

"Kind of like I got the shit kicked out of me. You?"

Oliver looked at the floor. "Yeah, I figured." He looked up at my face. "It looks like the swelling went down in your face a little."

"Yeah, I'm healing, I guess. Physically, anyway."

Oliver looked back down at the floor. "Things are pretty messed up right now, aren't they?" I just nodded. "Look, I came here to say I'm sorry. Now, I know I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself when you needed to, but I'm hoping you'll be a better person than I was." Oliver looked at me with hope in his eyes.

"I'm listening," I said.

"Okay. Thank you," he said, smiling. "When I found out Lilly cheated, it was like someone took away the best part of my life…the best part of me. Being with her made me a better person. She was everything to me, and as it turned out, she didn't even want me.

"I didn't tell the kids at school to torture her the way they did. Hell, I kept telling them to leave her alone. But once word got out about what had happened at my party, it seemed like even I couldn't stop them. They all seemed angrier and more hurt than even I was. Part of it was probably that so many people just loved the drama of it all.

"Then, I found out it was you. You were the other guy. You, the person I trusted more than anyone in the world, had betrayed me in the greatest way possible. You'd been with Lilly, and even after I knew she'd cheated, you'd acted like you didn't know who Lilly had been with. You looked me straight in the eye and comforted me when you were the reason I needed to be comforted in the first place."

Everything Oliver was saying was killing me. He was on the verge of tears, and he was right. I was the reason this had all happened. Me and Lilly.

"That's when I wanted people to torture the two of you," he continued. "I wanted you to feel terrible about what you'd done to me. I wanted you to feel all the pain I was feeling. Basically, I went off the deep end.

"The day we…" Oliver paused. "The day I hit you, I was at the end of my rope. I heard you and Lilly talking, and it just made me so angry. I just felt like since I wasn't talking to you two, you two shouldn't be talking to each other. I hadn't expected Lilly to tell me she never loved me. I'd just figured that she'd fallen out of love with me and in love with you. I didn't wanna believe that all that time we'd spent together was a meaningless lie…that while she'd been with me, all she wanted was you.

"I said those awful things, and then you hit me. I snapped. I lost myself, and I hit you back. I'm so ashamed of the way I've acted in this situation, but that has to top the list. I never thought I was even capable of laying my hands on you…ever. Much less get in a full-on fist fight with you. It was just plain wrong. I'm so sorry I did it, and I'm sorry for everything else, too. I just wanted you to know that." Oliver sighed. "If you want me to go, and you never wanna speak to me again, I'll understand."

"That's not what I want," I said. "That was never what I wanted.."

"Really?" Oliver asked.

"No, I don't wanna never talk to you again. You're my best friend. Sometimes, you're my only friend."

Oliver smiled and hugged me, but I knew this conversation wasn't over. He wasn't the only one that had apologizing to do.

"Miley," Oliver said as we broke apart, "can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead," I said.

"Why? Why did you do it?"

I took a deep breath. "I…I love her. I've loved her for a long time. I didn't really think about you until she ran out the first time. She almost always ran out. I think she felt guilty about what she was doing to you.."

"So…you love her? And she loves you?"

"Well, I can't really speak for her. She says she does, but she's so mixed up I don't really think she's sure what she's feeling. As for me…yeah, I love her."

Oliver shook his head. "How did I not know? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you loved her, too. Plus, for a long time, I thought she loved you. Everything seemed so perfect between you two. You were like the golden couple."

"I thought so, too," Oliver said. "I guess everything isn't what it seems, huh?" Oliver started to cry.

"Oliver," I said, putting my arm around him, "I'm so sorry. I didn't-"

"You know what I'm sick of?" Oliver asked, cutting me off. "I'm sick of crying. It makes my eyes all puffy."

I couldn't help but smile a little bit. No matter how much Oliver had lost himself the past few weeks, it was obvious he was finding himself again.

"I know what you mean," I chimed in. "So have you talked to Lilly yet?"

"No, I don't think I'm ready for that. You…you're my friend. I knew we could fix this, even if I was a total asshole."

"I'm not really free of blame in this."

"I know, but you tried to solve this, and you tried to apologize. Me? All I did was make things worse. That's part of the reason I can't bring myself to talk to Lilly. That, and it still kinda hurts to be around her. You know, since I still love her." I could tell Oliver was trying so hard not to break into tears again.

"Well, eventually, you're gonna have to talk to her. You can't avoid her forever."

Oliver nodded. "I will. I just need some time to figure out what I'm gonna say. What would you say in this situation? 'Hey, I'm sorry you didn't love me and that I was a total dick that punched the one you love in the face' doesn't exactly have the best ring to it."

I laughed. I'd missed my hang outs with Oliver.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," I said.

"Have you talked to her?" he asked.

"Lilly? No, we sort of just fight whenever we talk. Well, fight and kiss…but you probably didn't wanna know that." I really wished that it was physically possible to stick my foot in my mouth.

"It's alright. I guess…I guess I'm gonna have to get used to you two being a couple."

"I don't think so," I said. "I'm pretty sure it would be best if we just didn't talk anymore. It's easier."

"It's easier?" Oliver said. "Miley, do you love her?" I sat there in silence staring at the floor. "Come on, I know you do. You just said a few minutes ago that you did.

"Yeah, I love her."

"Then you know damn well that not talking to her would be the farthest thing from easy. You need to talk to her. You need to be with her."

I couldn't believe he was saying this. Was he really pushing me to be with Lilly?

"What about you? I can't be with Lilly, not after what we did to you."

"Miley, yeah, you did a bad thing to me, but I'm the last person to try to stand in the way of love. If you wanna be with Lilly, go be with Lilly."

I looked at Oliver and started to cry. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Don't mention it. Now get out of here before I change my mind." Oliver and I walked out of the house. He walked home, and I made my way to Lilly's house.

* * *

A/N: The next chapter will be the last. Please keep it up with the R&R. I really appreciate it.


	8. The Resolution

A/N: This is it. The end. I hope you all enjoy it. Thank you for reading and reviewing like you all have. Tell me if you love it, or if you hate it.

* * *

I stood outside of Lilly's door, debating on whether I should knock or not. Was I really ready for this? Was she ready for this? Did she even want me anymore? I wasn't even sure what I was going to say. I didn't know if I should apologize or if I should throw myself at her and hope that's what she wants.

I started to think that this wasn't a very good idea after all. Sure, Oliver had the balls to come and apologize to me, but that was so we could maybe go back to the way things were. It wasn't so we could take this very huge, very risky step forward in our relationship. I started to walk away when I heard the door open behind me.

Lilly was standing in the doorway.

"Hi," she said.

"How did you know I was out here?" I asked a little more forcefully than I meant to.

"I didn't know it was you. I just thought that I heard something out here."

I nodded. She nodded back. We stood there nodding at each other for a good two minutes. I got a little dizzy.

"So," I said, "are your parents home?"

"No, they're both at work," she said. "They said I'm not allowed to have anyone over."

"Did they say anyone, or did they say me?"

Lilly looked at the ground. "They hate you, Miley. They don't want me to ever talk to you again. They said you're a pervert and that if they ever catch the two of us together again, they're gonna send me to a military school."

I could feel the tears gathering in my eyes. "That's…that's not fair. It's your senior year. How could they just make you move your senior year?"

"They're pretty adamant about us being apart. They want me to try to patch things up with Oliver. They really like Oliver." Lilly started fiddling her hands together. "I told them that I didn't wanna be with him. They really didn't care. I guess they just can't deal with me being…gay. I sort of feel like they've disowned me."

I didn't know what to do. If I was her friend, I would hug her; if I was her girlfriend, I would kiss her, but because the line was so blurry right now, all I could do was tell her it would be okay while she cried.

The next thing I knew, she'd thrown herself into my arms.

"I don't want this. I just wish I could go back in time and fix this. I wish I'd never dated Oliver and that I'd come clean to my parents a long time ago. I wish I'd realized sooner how I felt about you. I wish we could be together, but we can't, and now, we can't even be friends."

My heart was breaking for her. Everything had gotten so bad over the last few months for her.

"Lilly, it's okay. I'm not walking away from you. If you need me here as your friend, I'll be here as your friend. I will always be here for you."

Lilly looked up at me. "But what if I want more? What if I can't just be your friend because I can't stop thinking about being with you? What if I want to be with you so badly that it hurts?" Lilly backed away from me. "It doesn't matter. None of it matters anymore. We can't be together."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Why not? Because of my parents-"

"Screw your parents! They don't need to know that we're together. They're bigots, and it's they're fault that they don't wanna know the real you."

"It's not that simple, Miley. I can't just not tell them. They'd find out. They're keeping me on a very short leash right now. I'm not even allowed to hang out with anyone unless it's for school or with Oliver. Plus, if they ever found out, I would get sent away."

"Or you could come live with me," I said.

"Oh yeah, sure. How's your dad gonna feel about that when he finds out we're dating?"

"Lilly, do you seriously think my dad will care at all? The only reason I haven't told him I'm gay is because I'm pretty sure he knows already. Plus, he adores you. You're like blood to him. I don't think he would have any problem with it."

Lilly rolled her eyes. "What about Oliver? I'm not putting him through seeing us together. No matter how much he's done to me and how much I've done to him, I refuse to hurt him anymore."

"Well, Oliver is sort of the reason that I'm over here right now. He came to my house to apologize. He wanted to say something to you, too, but he figured it would be easier to talk to me first."

Lilly sighed. "How is he? Is he okay?" She really did care about him no matter what.

"He's doing better. I think he just needed to snap. He just came over and we both apologized about everything. In the end, though, he told me to come over here."

"What? Why?" Lilly asked.

"He wants us to be together. Even he knows that we shouldn't be apart."

"Miley, just because he said we should be together doesn't mean that we should. It's too complicated with the kids at school and my parents and everything else. We'd have to be sneaking around or be ridiculed all of the time."

"I really don't care about all that-"

"Well I do!" Lilly yelled at me. "Don't you get it? I can't take any more of this! I can't stand being singled out and being the outcast of the school! My life's just starting to get normal again! If you and I start dating, then my whole life gets turned upside down again! I've had enough of that! We can't be together!"

I was shocked. How could I have been so stupid? I hadn't been thinking about Lilly at all.

"I'm sorry. I guess…I guess I was so eager to be with you that I didn't think about the possibility that…you didn't wanna be with me." I could feel the tears falling out of my eyes. I tried to keep them from falling, but they were beyond my control. "I'll…I'll leave now. Have a nice…life, I guess."

I walked away from her house, hoping that she would stop me from leaving. When I heard the door shut behind me, I knew that it was over. I knew she was done with me. After everything, I had lost Lilly.

* * *

I went home and cried for hours. I cried until I didn't have anything left in me, then I cried some more. I felt like someone had ripped my still-beating heart out of my chest and was currently shoving needles into it. My dad had tried to talk to me, but I was inconsolable. Even Jackson tried, but he almost made things worse.

Oliver called me, but I didn't answer. We may have made some major steps to getting back to being friends, but I don't think he would be too thrilled to talk about how his ex-girlfriend broke my heart. Then again, there may have been nothing he wanted to hear more, but I wasn't in the mood to talk.

That night, when I was completely out of tears, I just sat on my bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering how all of this had gotten so out of control. I guess that things were looking up for everyone else. Oliver was coping and Lilly was starting to get some of her normal life back, but I was left miserable and empty. I felt like dying.

I heard a knock on the door downstairs. I figured it was someone for my dad, because I could hear him talking to whoever it was. Then, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and I figured it was my dad coming to get me. Whoever was at the door must've wanted to talk to me. Finally, I heard a knock at my room door.

"Go away, Dad! I don't wanna talk to anyone right now!"

"Miley, it's me." I immediately recognized the voice. It was Lilly. I got up and answered the door. She was standing there with a suitcase in her hand.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I told my parents."

"You told your parents…what exactly?"

"I told them that I love you. I told them that I never loved Oliver and that we were never going to get back together. I told them that I wanted to be with you and that it didn't matter what they said, or what anyone else said. I was going to be with you."

I could feel a huge grin creeping up on my face. "What did they do?"

"They said I had an hour to get my stuff together and get out. So I did, and I had Oliver drive me over here. I explained everything to your dad, and he said I could stay here for as long as I want. God, I love your dad. Anyway, he and Oliver are moving the rest of my stuff into your guest room."

"Wow…just…wow." I was at a complete and utter loss for words.

"Miley, I'm sorry for everything I said earlier. I don't care about anyone else anymore. I wanna be with you and I'm gonna be with you…if you still want me."

I smiled and kissed her. The moment her lips touched mine, I knew we'd be okay. This relationship wasn't going to be easy, but I knew that we'd be able to make it. We pulled apart, and Lilly was giggling.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. It's just nice to be able to do that without feeling completely guilty." She leaned in and we kissed again, but it wasn't long before someone clearing their throat in the doorway made us break apart.

It was Oliver. There was this painfully awkward silence.

"Okay, now that we got that out of the way," Oliver said, "we should be in the clear now. I mean, it can't get anymore awkward than that."

Lilly and I just smiled at him. I'd really missed being with the two of them without guilt.

"Anyway," Oliver continued, "your dad wants to know if we all wanna go to the movies. I think he's trying to make up for not noticing that all of this was going on between us. In any case, it's an excuse to make your dad pay for stuff. You guys in?"

Lilly and I nodded and followed Oliver out the door. It hadn't just been all the problems that I had with Lilly and Oliver, but all the problems that kept us all from being together as friends. Now that Lilly and I were finally together, and Oliver was dealing, I felt whole again.


End file.
